Well, that was ing awkward, he thinks as he walks back towards his dressing room. He doesn't notice anyone in the hallway until he feels someone's hand grab hold of his arm.

"Hey...I'm sorry she did this to you...I'll try to talk some sense into her."

He scoffs at the poor excuse for comfort.

"It's a little late for that, Junhyung," he says, turning his head to look the owner of the hand that's currently got his right arm in a vice grip dead in the eyes. He tears his arm away in one swift motion from the older man's grasp and continues walking. He's only managed to get a few more feet away when he hears her voice.

"Zico!"

He grits his teeth, trying to avoid looking back. His heart thrums uncomfortably against his chest.

"Zico!!!"

He continues to ignore her and picks up his pace. He can hear her distant footsteps trying to catch up.

ing a'.


"Z!!!"


He stops dead in his tracks. Grits his teeth again. Inhales. Exhales. Turns on his heel to face her. In the time that it takes to even consider walking up to her she's already closed the distance between them.

When she reaches him he shoves his hands into his jacket pockets, not trusting himself to resist the urge to slap her if the opportunity presents itself. His heart is beating in his throat and his stomach feels like it's being turned inside out.

"I just wanted to thank you for being here today," she says innocently, -or at least what the people around them would probably think of as innocently. "I'm glad we got to perform together."

He's all but scowling at her, the urge to slap that coy grin right off of her face rising. Putting his hands in his pockets was definitely a smart decision.

"I was only doing Dok2 a favor. No need to thank me." He can practically taste the acididity in his own words.

She looks stunned for a moment. But as soon as that moment passes -about 3 seconds later-, she feigns a pained look, as if he'd actually managed to hurt her feelings.

"There's no need for you to be so rude."

"And there's no need for you to be such a ."

There's that look of pain again, except this time he's positive it's genuine. He's smirking internally, but as amusing as her reaction to the truth is, he's still pissed. His facial expression remains the same, scowl set in place, heart practically choking him at this point.

"Look, I'll finish up promoting with you because it's what I promised to do, and I don't break promises that I make to the people I care about. But after promotions...don't ever even think about speaking to me again."

He turns away and walks a few steps before looking back at her to say, "And don't ever call me 'Z' again, either. Only my friends call me that."

With those last words he continues the trek to his dressing room where he clears his things out as quickly as possible and hops in the company vehicle hastily, beyond anxious to get back home to the dorms.

He makes a b-line for the bedroom when he gets there, pulls a pair of sweats and a t-shirt haphazardly out of his drawer, grabs the closest pair of clean boxers he sees and heads to the bathroom.

"Hey!" He yells at whoever's occupying it while banging on the door. "Get the hell out, I needa shower!"

He hears the sound of water running for a bit before Yukwon exits the bathroom. He opens the door with his characteristic grin on his face, but when he sees the look Jiho gives him it instantly fades away. He bows his head slightly towards the leader and rushes to get out of his way.

As soon as Jiho steps into the room he shuts the door and locks it- not trusting the other members to ensure his privacy otherwise. He turns on the shower and strips his clothes off, doing his best to ignore the fact that every damn article of clothing he has on smells like her, now.

When he hops into the shower he scrubs like a madman, as if he's trying to remove a parasite that's made a home just beneath the surface of his skin. His skin becomes raw quickly, and he realizes that no matter how hard he scrubs he can't erase her existence.
A yell erupts from his chest and seconds later he's in a fetal position on the floor, head in his hands and tears streaming down his face.

"What the did you do to me?!" He's screaming at her, well aware that she's no where near enough to hear him. His screaming gives way to full-on sobs, his chest now heaving up and down erratically, and his body shaking like an alcoholic gone cold-turkey when they need their fix the most.

Memories pop in and out of his mind, all of them happy, which only makes the pain worse.

He has no clue how long he's been in the bathroom by the time he finally calms himself down long enough to drag his limp body out of the shower; though if his pruney hands are any indication, it's probably been a few hours.

He wipes some of the fog away from the mirror and takes a good look at himself. His eyes are bloodshot, his eyelids puffy, and his face is flushed.

"Z!!!! Are you done yet?! , man, you've been in there forever!"
And of course that would be Kyung knocking on the door right now when he looks like hell and wants nothing more than to be left alone. Of. ing. Course.

"Hold the up! Jesus, I'm almost done!!"

"I ing hope so, cuz unless you're having a baby I don't see a reason why you gotta hog the bathroom for five million years!"

He wants to laugh so hard at the sheer nonsense of what Kyung is saying and to tell him that he's a ing idiot, but he's so low on energy that he can only manage an eye roll -and even that seems to take some intense effort. The harassment will have to wait until Jiho's in a better state to fend off the impending punches he's sure to have aimed at him.

He throws on the fresh set of clothes he grabbed, -allowing himself to smirk ever-so-slightly at the fact that the boxers he's currently wearing belong to the village idiot just outside the door,- and leaves the restroom, paying no attention to a disgruntled Kyung who's yelling at him for not picking his up off the floor.

He falls into his bed and crawls under the covers. Today's events have been so exhausting that he just wants it to be over.

He's starting to feel himself drift off to sleep when the bedroom door opens, and music from whatever the rest of the members are watching in the living room rushes in and startles him awake. He doesn't react much other than fluttering his eyes open. The energy it would take to roll over and face whoever is entering isn't worth it so he just continues to lie there.

"Hey...sorry if I woke you...but...do you wanna talk about it?"

A half-smile eases itself across his face. Most days Jiho would be pissed to be woken up so abruptly, but today is a just a reminder of why Kyung is his favorite idiot in the world.

God, I love you man.

"Nah, not tonight. Tomorrow, though." Jiho's response is still laden with sleep but he makes sure to actually put in some extra effort so that his friend can hear him clearly- mainly because he doesn't want to have to muster up the energy to repeat himself.

"Alright. G'night, Z."

"'Night, Kyung."

Jiho takes a quick glance at the alarm clock by his bed and realizes it's 12:01 am. He's officially managed to make it through the entire day.

Thank the ing Lord.

He starts to settle back into sleep a little easier now, all of his thoughts from throughout the day put to rest for the time being.
But right as he's about to begin his journey back to dreamland he realizes that the worst isn't over yet. He still has two more music shows to perform on with her- tonight and  the day after tomorrow. And that's just for this week.

He groans and buries his face in his pillow. There's no way he'll be able to go back to sleep now.

" my life."